Game 24: GMU (12-11 / 5-5) at St. Joe’s (10-13 / 4-8) on February 16 at 7PM.

[mkaufman1]

Be nice if that Duquesne game wasn't cancelled. Looks like it would have been a road win if not canceled. Mason would definitely have been the favorites against Rhody at home too.

From my understanding it doesn’t appear those games are likely to be made up.

was hoping Mason maybe could buy the game against Duquesne considering how bad they are.

 

[Petey Buckets]

This team will not play on Saturday if it has to play Thursday. There is a negative six billion percent chance of this team winning on back to back days having to ride the starters for 40 minutes.

How do you know we won't run into one of the other A10 teams that has no bench? There are a few.

 

[sleeperpick]

How do you know we won't run into one of the other A10 teams that has no bench? There are a few.

I’m not trying to play Bona again especially after what they have done to Saint Louis twice in 5 days

 

[Petey Buckets]

I’m not trying to play Bona again especially after what they have done to Saint Louis twice in 5 days

I wish we had a reliable bench too, but it's pretty clear that it is what it is at this point. Any offense we get from them is a nice little treat.

 

[MasonSAE4]

How do you know we won't run into one of the other A10 teams that has no bench? There are a few.

On Friday? Even if we do play a team that goes six deep, that team is playing its first game. We're playing our second.

 

[GMUgemini]

How do you know we won't run into one of the other A10 teams that has no bench? There are a few.

Would be more important in any possible semifinal scenario (Richmond, Davidson, Bona). It would be Masons’s 3rd game in 3 days.

Would also be nice to play a team with really crappy defense in game 1 too (UMass, La Salle, Duquense) so the bench might actually spell the starters (bench scored 17 against UMass, 15 against La Salle).

 

[JimP]

The Duquesne game was cancelled?? I didn't know any A10 games were cancelled, assumed they were just postponed.

I guess I'm assuming it is. May be best not to play it - a likely win, but another road trip would likely be pretty taxing.

 

[GMUgemini]

I guess I'm assuming it is. May be best not to play it - a likely win, but another road trip would likely be pretty taxing.

Don’t see any room unless they squeeze a Friday game in this week or next. Last 5: Sunday, Wednesday, Sunday, Wednesday, Saturday.

 

[Earl the Squirrel]

And sorry to say, but KE deserves a fair share of the blame here. Despite the roster limitations, we are not playing good basketball. Not moving the ball well. Not playing good defense. Not getting the most out of the good players we do have. The rotation is inconsistent, and today's version of the bench was awful.

I have to agree here. We had a 7-9 pt lead in the 1st half and KE brings in BJ, BB, and MH and runs them around for 5-7 mins. Sure...go ahead and pull that move when you are 20 pts ahead but you're inviting SJU to get back into the dance. Dumb. And it makes no sense because these same guys did not make an appearance the 2nd half. Just reckless.

 

[Patriotsince81]

"We're trying to reestablish our identity as a defensive team," head coach Kim English said. "When we had those six games in 11 days, we lost our defensive edge. We have to get that back. In overtime and those last four minutes, we did that. We put together some stops which led to scores, and holding them to 20 percent in overtime was great. It's just about us continuing to grow on that end of the floor. We've been in these types of ball games all season. The vcu game was an outlier for us. It's good for us to start to find a way to come out on top in games like this."

 

[gmujim92]

I have to agree here. We had a 7-9 pt lead in the 1st half and KE brings in BJ, BB, and MH and runs them around for 5-7 mins. Sure...go ahead and pull that move when you are 20 pts ahead but you're inviting SJU to get back into the dance. Dumb. And it makes no sense because these same guys did not make an appearance the 2nd half. Just reckless.

He’s trying to steal a few rest minutes for the starters where he can. Lotta miles on these guys’ legs by this point of the season. It’s called making the best of a less than ideal situation.

 

[Petey Buckets]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1494160762763423748

View: https://twitter.com/peteybuckets/status/1494160762763423748?t=fQF4mgMfZGTbz_HgLUcE0Q&s=19

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1494166048328884229

View: https://twitter.com/peteybuckets/status/1494166048328884229?t=hHha2fkx4csrqkBFNS_BMA&s=19


Linking a couple of my tweets because I don't think I can post video here, but Josh had two really impressive defensive sequences late (one in regulation, one in overtime) where he got switched onto Jordan Hall and locked him up. Both of these come while he has four fouls. Dude is doing EVERYTHING this year.

 

[dr. gunnie]

I have to agree here. We had a 7-9 pt lead in the 1st half and KE brings in BJ, BB, and MH and runs them around for 5-7 mins. Sure...go ahead and pull that move when you are 20 pts ahead but you're inviting SJU to get back into the dance. Dumb. And it makes no sense because these same guys did not make an appearance the 2nd half. Just reckless.

Against Richmond in the 1st half English put in the bench (both Blakes and Otis) and we went from down 3 to up 6 with them in. Was that dumb too? Also, pretty sure MH was a DNP last night.

Gotta get the starters rest at some point.

 

[NewPatriot]

"We're trying to reestablish our identity as a defensive team," head coach Kim English said. "When we had those six games in 11 days, we lost our defensive edge. We have to get that back. In overtime and those last four minutes, we did that. We put together some stops which led to scores, and holding them to 20 percent in overtime was great. It's just about us continuing to grow on that end of the floor. We've been in these types of ball games all season. The vcu game was an outlier for us. It's good for us to start to find a way to come out on top in games like this."

I was thinking the exact same thing during the st. Joe's game. Mason need mentally get off the mat after the vcu game and respond defensively.

 

[GMUgemini]

Against Richmond in the 1st half English put in the bench (both Blakes and Otis) and we went from down 3 to up 6 with them in. Was that dumb too? Also, pretty sure MH was a DNP last night.

Gotta get the starters rest at some point.

Playing Blake against Ejike was a bad choice. Should have put Henry in (he looked like he dressed last night). Also, Oduro had 2 fouls at that point, so someone had to take some of his minutes.

I didn’t really have a problem with the rest of the bench minutes.

 

[mkaufman1]

Maybe someone can educate me but I'm a little puzzled by how Malik has played some games, not others.

Is it totally matchup dependent? Is he a defensive liability? I know offense from him generally only comes via a dunk or putback, but if we all know it takes more time to develop bigs, I'm not sure how the inconsistent minutes help someone like him out. Its now year 2 and we haven't seen very much from him in terms of progression.

Maybe I'm not watching close enough. Its easy to tell with Hartwell or Jones or even Polite to a degree.

 

[PDGL Hoops]

Road W's are hard to come by - just happy they pulled it out. Also I didn't wear any Mason gear on game day after noticing we don't win when I do. Glad I figured that out....

 

[psyclone]

For some reason the first box score of the game on gomason.com includes the +/- numbers for everyone but l don't see it on the current page. Anyway, Blake Buchanan was a +10 and second on the team only to Josh at +11.

Clearly it's not because of BB's scoring but I've heard on one of the broadcasts (maybe the last coach's show) that he regularly has good +/- numbers. Not sure if it's fluky or a function of the rotation or his good defense. In that he usually comes in for Cooper, if Devon isn't scoring much (like last night) I could see how Blake's numbers might be positive. I think Blake was in when Josh was on his personal 9-0 run, so that might have inflated Blake's numbers. Is it a case of correlation not proving causation?

I did notice our points from turnovers last night was something like 16-3 advantage...not sure if Blake was somehow contributing to that.

 

[sleeperpick]

For some reason the first box score of the game on gomason.com includes the +/- numbers for everyone but l don't see it on the current page. Anyway, Blake Buchanan was a +10 and second on the team only to Josh at +11.

Clearly it's not because of BB's scoring but I've heard on one of the broadcasts (maybe the last coach's show) that he regularly has good +/- numbers. Not sure if it's fluky or a function of the rotation or his good defense. In that he usually comes in for Cooper, if Devon isn't scoring much (like last night) I could see how Blake's numbers might be positive. I think Blake was in when Josh was on his personal 9-0 run, so that might have inflated Blake's numbers. Is it a case of correlation not proving causation?

I did notice our points from turnovers last night was something like 16-3 advantage...not sure if Blake was somehow contributing to that.

Blake outside of Ticket has the most active hands on defense. The kid is very limited offensively, but when you have Oduro, Schwartz and Ticket in with him he doesn't really need to be. What he can do is set good screens, make good passes and not screw up an offense by dribbling the life out of the ball. He is a net positive for this team because he doesn't make us inept on defense like everyone else on the bench + Cooper some of the time does. I get wanting Otis in because he is an athletic specimen, but outside of 2-3 games he looks mostly lost out there and doesn't seem to be a smart basketball player. Blake J over Malik is dumbfounding to me (he is obviously in a deep deep spot on the doghouse). Blake was a bricklayer and was too quick to shoot yesterday for my liking. Anyone calling for Mike Gray over JH, please go back to when Mike Gray played early on. I am not sure he belongs at NOVA much less in a heated A-10 contest. Jamal didn't make me want to hurt myself yesterday so that at least was an improvement.

 

[GMUgemini]

Maybe someone can educate me but I'm a little puzzled by how Malik has played some games, not others.

Is it totally matchup dependent? Is he a defensive liability? I know offense from him generally only comes via a dunk or putback, but if we all know it takes more time to develop bigs, I'm not sure how the inconsistent minutes help someone like him out. Its now year 2 and we haven't seen very much from him in terms of progression.

Maybe I'm not watching close enough. Its easy to tell with Hartwell or Jones or even Polite to a degree.

He’s a defensive liability when he’s forced to switch out on the perimeter (think of the GW game where they had free reign of the basket for most of the game), the conundrum arises because of what Ejike was doing on the inside with Oduro out.

But other than Jones not recognizing why they were playing off him and jacking up ill-advised shots, I didn’t have a problem with any of the other bench minutes.